Donnacha Dennehy

Short Bio

Donnacha Dennehy, composer of the opera “The Second Violinist”, winner of the FEDORA - GENERALI Prize for Opera 2017, is one of the top 10 leading composers whose new operatic works have been most performed in the world over the last seven years (Source : Operabase, 2023).

Donnacha Dennehy’s music is marked by a kind of volatile tonality that travels in and out of an overtone-based focus. His fascination with the way time and light stretch and contract through the seasons of the year in his native Ireland, and the psychological impact of such phenomena, has often influenced the structure of his music generally. There is often a tension between the poetic and the structural in his music. He is attracted to obsessive processes but nearly always breaks them. The intersection between words and music, and the vocal sean-nós (old style) tradition has exerted a strong pull over him too since he was a child. Returning to Ireland after studies abroad, principally at the University of Illinois in the US, Dennehy founded Crash Ensemble in 1997. Alongside the singers Dawn Upshaw and Iarla Ó Lionáird, Crash Ensemble features on the 2011 Nonesuch release of Dennehy’s music, entitled Grá agus Bás. Other releases include a number by NMC Records in London, Bedroom Community in Reykjavik and Cantaloupe in New York. He joined the music faculty at Princeton University in 2014, and now lives in America. In recent years, Dennehy has completed a trilogy of operas with Enda Walsh, The Last Hotel (2015), The Second Violinist (2017) and The First Child (2021). He has also written a kind of “docu-cantata”, The Hunger, for Alarm Will Sound, which was released by Nonesuch in 2019. Augustin Hadelich premiered his new violin concerto in the Netherlands in October 2021.  

Videos

Projects

FEDORA
VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
Prize for Ballet 2018
Shortlist

Collaborating Artists

Maggie Donlon

Marguerite Donlon

 Choreographer

Conor Murphy

Conor Murphy

Set Designer

Paul Keogan

Paul Keogan

Lighting designer

Dirk Haubrich

Dirk Haubrich

Composer

Molinero

Meritxell Aumedes Molinero

Video artist

Donnacha Dennehy

Composer

United Kingdom

Enda Walsh

Librettist

United Kingdom

Ryan McAdams

Ryan McAdams

Conductor

Jamie Vartan

Jamie Vartan

Set Designer

Adam Silverman

Adam Silverman

Lighting Designer

Helen Atkinson

Helen Atkinson

Sound Designer

David Sheppard

David Sheppard

Sound Designer

Hand_with_heart_-_white

Support sustainable innovation in opera and dance

Outdated browser

For a better experience,
keep your browser up to date.

Learn more